{"id":12198,"date":"2011-12-03T11:53:01","date_gmt":"2011-12-03T11:53:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thisblogrules.com\/?p=12198"},"modified":"2011-12-03T09:55:50","modified_gmt":"2011-12-03T09:55:50","slug":"zeuss-5-most-bizarre-conquests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thisblogrules.com\/zeuss-5-most-bizarre-conquests\/","title":{"rendered":"Zeus’ 5 Most Bizarre Conquests"},"content":{"rendered":"
In Ancient Greek mythology Zeus was king of the gods and, by and large,\u00a0did a pretty good job of it. Referred to as father even by those gods he\u00a0didn’t have a hand in conceiving, he overthrew his baby-eating father\u00a0Cronus and shared the world with his elder brothers Poseidon (who got the\u00a0world’s waters) and Hades (who was put in charge of the dead and thus the\u00a0Underworld). However, for all his godliness he had one fatal flaw: women.\u00a0This, perhaps understandably, pissed off his wife Hera no end, especially\u00a0considering the irony of her presiding over marriage and the union of the\u00a0marriage bed. But what were Zeus’s more unusual dalliances? He was a god,\u00a0after all, and a few dirty weekends disguised as business trips weren’t\u00a0exactly going to cut it.<\/p>\n
Metis<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Metis, the goddess of prudence, was said to be Zeus’s first love. However,\u00a0she went to great lengths to avoid succumbing to his advances. A\u00a0shapeshifter, she cycled through a number of forms with Zeus matching every\u00a0one until she finally gave in. However, it was prophesied that Metis would\u00a0bear a son capable of overthrowing Zeus, leading to him tricking her into\u00a0turning herself into a fly and swallowing her. However, Metis was already\u00a0pregnant, causing Zeus great pain as she hammered away inside his head\u00a0making weapons and armour for her unborn daughter. Eventually Zeus asked\u00a0Hephaestus to crack his head open, causing Athena to leap out fully grown\u00a0and complete with armour and weapons (Zeus was fine, by the way).<\/p>\n Io<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Perhaps not one of Zeus’s best choices due to the fact that she was a\u00a0priestess of Hera, Io was one of several (named) nymphs to catch the eye of\u00a0the king of the gods. Zeus transformed her into a beautiful white heifer in\u00a0an attempt to hide her from Hera’s jealous gaze but she was not fooled.\u00a0Demanding the heifer as a gift (and with both of them knowing that Zeus’s\u00a0refusal would be indicative of his guilt), Hera took Io and placed her\u00a0under the watchful eye of Argus Panoptes (or rather eyes as he had well\u00a0over a hundred of them all over his body). Zeus ordered Hermes to kill the\u00a0unfortunate Argus, who according to Ovid did so by disguising himself as a\u00a0shepherd and charming all of his many eyes to sleep at once before doing\u00a0the deed. Hera then forced Io to wander the earth by plaguing her with a\u00a0stinging gadfly (arguably not the best of\u00a0Greek holidays<\/a>).\u00a0Zeus eventually restored her to human form, Io ultimately going on to marry\u00a0the Egyptian king Telegonus.<\/p>\n Callisto<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Callisto was one of Artemis’s nymphs, and like all of the goddess’s\u00a0followers took a vow of chastity. This, of course, didn’t stop Zeus, who\u00a0assumed the form of Artemis herself in order to force himself on Callisto\u00a0when she was separated from the goddess and her fellows. Some months later\u00a0while she and the other nymphs were bathing together, Artemis realised that\u00a0Callisto was pregnant. The goddess cast her out, delivering the coup degrace after she gave birth by transforming her into a bear. Sixteen years\u00a0later, Callisto’s son encountered and almost killed his mother while\u00a0hunting in the forest, leading to Zeus avoiding this unbearable (yeah, I\u00a0went there) fate by placing them both in the sky as constellations (Ursa\u00a0Major and Ursa Minor respectively).<\/p>\n